My first commute in a long time and it wasn't good; I got a rear puncture on the way in.
I tried the "pump and ride, pump and ride" technique and it worked for a few miles before I decided to try CO
2. The result with the 1st cartridge was good so I used another. That wasn't so good; it blew the tyre off the rim and popped the tube. By then I was only about a mile from work so I pushed it the rest of the way. I wasn't late but I'd rather have got there earlier.
I wasn't due to finish work until 23.30 so I realised that I'd have to fix the flat since there's no public transport that I'm aware of at that time. (My preferred option would have been to get the bus/tram home and collect the bike in the car and sort it out at home.)
As luck would have it, I passed the end of my road on the route so I popped home to pick up my track pump and a spare tyre. It was tempting to get the Disco instead and use that to ride home but it would have been frowned upon on H&S grounds if I'd put it in the back of the van.
I thought that the puncture had been caused by glass from either fly-tipping on the cycle path near Kenworthy Woods or from the re-cycling centre in Sharston (the road glitters in the sunshine) but it turned out to be a piece of wire that had got through the tread and protection belt.
Fixing it didn't take long but getting the wheel back on was a pain because the spring from the chain tensioner got caught and it took me ages to unjam it (I commute on the Rohloff bike). My problems weren't over then though. The spare tube had a dodgy valve and it was letting out almost as much air as the pump was putting in. A vigorous bout of pumping that had my arms burning got enough air in, or so I hoped. Thank goodness I'd picked up the track pump; I don't think my smaller pump would have worked.
Another issue was that there was/is no rim tape on the wheel. WTF ? I've no idea why I didn't put any on after I had the wheel rebuilt
.
After this catalogue of errors, I decided to ride home via Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle and Didsbury as an experiment. It seems a good route (at least at 0.30) and I got home at 01.00.
I'm going to have a lie-in tomorrow/today and, until I can get some new tubes and rim tape, I'll either drive in or use the Disco.